We are proud to have been awarded the TripAdvisor People's Choice Award 2012 and would like to Thank All Our Guests for the reviews you have written in, which have made this happen.

We have been chosen by you, the TripAdvisor Reviewers, as the No.7 Bargain hotel in Thailand, the No.11 Best Service hotel in Thailand and No.22 Bargain hotel in Asia.

These prestigious awards have great meaning for us and will help us continue to provide a little oasis of tranquility in an otherwise increasingly frenetic and confused world.

Best wishes to all our guests, may your dreams come true.... well the good ones anyway.

Ian & Vassana

On 7th & 8th January 2012, we visited the Festival of 9 Tribes at Bahn Saeo, about 30 minutes drive from Viang Yonok. This is a marvellous yearly event, where the 9 different ethnic groups who live wthin the district of Bahn Saeo come together, for a festival. We three were the only outsiders, this was a truly local non-touristy event and a great privilege to see.

The groups represented were; Isarn, Lisu, Chinese, Shan, Akha, Lahu, IuMien(Yao), Tai Lue and Thai. There were also some Hmong people who had been invited.

After a parade through the village, everyone got togethger at the showground. After introductions, a firework on a wire shot around to the front of each house in turn, causing a curtain to drop revealing the name of the ethnic group represented, the firework then ended burning a string which dropped a hammer onto a gong. Various speeches by local dignitaries were then followed by a lot of presentations of bouquets of roses. Each of the groups houses were offering tasting of their traditional foods & teas.

After more speeches, each group did a dance routine on the stage and this was followed by a beauty contest. It was a privilege indeed to be present at this completely non-touristy event. At Viang Yonok Hotel, we love to take our guests to these unique events that show the true northern Thai culture at one of these local festivals.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our guests, past and present. May all your wishes come true in 2012.

We decided that as Christmas was a time of giving, rather than charging our guests extra for a Christmas meal, we gave all our guests a free dinner of Oriental Roast Chicken with baked potatoes and salad, followed by Plum Pudding.

Santa surprised us all with a visit to Viang Yonok this year. His reindeer had gone on strike, so he came on his old BSA motorbike, bearing a small bag of gifts for the guests.

That's not a cushion under his coat is it....?

With the Mae Liang of the Viang.

The children were happy to see Santa and get some presents.

As were some of our adult guests. Everyone joined in the fun.

Santa rides off into the night to visit more lucky people. Looks like he was trying to take some of the ladies with him....

We took some of our guests to the annual Mexican Sunflower Hilltribe festival in Hua Mae Kham, a couple of hours drive up to the northwest point of the country.

The festival starts at the Hua Mae Kham waterfall. Then the people move down to the field surrounded by the beautiful Mexican Sunflowers in full bloom.

This is a wonderful event, seeing the hilltribe cultures come together and a great opportunity for photographs.

Loy Krathong Festival in Chiang Saen was wonderful this year. We took 5 guests into the town in the evening to join in the celebrations. The festival is about giving thanks for having water, the source of life (although in many parts of Thailand this year there was too much water, in fact in Bangkok there were no Loy Krathong celebrations).

 This is wonderful spectacle and a traditional Thai festival dating from the Sukhothai kingdom, over 600 years ago. In fact there were very few foreigners around. The date coincides with the last full moon of the traditional Thai lunar calendar, where the last month of the year is November.

We watched the parade of about 30 floats come down the main street, from all the villages in the Chiang Saen area. The floats and village beauty queens are judged by a panel of VIPs and the winners get prizes. The floats are works of art that the people spend many weeks preparing for and are covered with fresh flowers. Also in the parade are fire breathers, drum dancers and sword dancers.

 We all then headed down to the Mekong river to float our krathongs down the river and make our wishes. We had made our krathongs at the hotel earlier in the day, using only organic items; a slice of a banana tree, folded leaves, fresh flowers, candles and incence.